The Powerpuff Girls is a American-animated TV series and media franchise created by Craig McCracken and produced by Turner Entertainment, Hanna-Barbera and Cartoon Network.
Titles[]
Television series[]
The Powerpuff Girls (1998)[]
The Powerpuff Girls is an American animated television created by Craig McCracken for Cartoon Network. It originally aired on Cartoon Network as a pair of pilot shorts on the series What a Cartoon!, with the first premiering on February 20, 1995. With the success of these pilots, The Powerpuff Girls was picked up by Cartoon Network as a full series, which aired from November 18, 1998 to March 25, 2005, running for six seasons and 78 episodes
Powerpuff Girls Z[]
In April 2005, plans for a Japanese anime series based on the cartoon, Demashita! Powerpuff Girls Z, were announced. The series premiered in Japan the following year with 52 half-hour episodes, airing each Saturday from July 1 to December 23, 2006, and from January 6 to June 30, 2007. Powerpuff Girls Z deviates from the original series in terms of genre and animation style. The characters feature three junior high school students Momoko Akatsutsumi (Hyper Blossom), Miyako Gotokuji (Rolling Bubbles), and Kaoru Matsubara (Powered Buttercup) as the three heroes. A manga adaptation, illustrated by Shiho Komiyuno, was serialized in Shueisha's Ribon magazine between June 2006 and July 2007.
The Powerpuff Girls (2016)[]
On June 16, 2014, Cartoon Network announced a comeback of the series that aired in 2016. Nick Jennings serves as the executive producer. Creator Craig McCracken isn't involved, since he worked for Disney while the reboot was in production.
Tara Strong stated on Twitter that the girls themselves were being recast, and later said she, Cathy Cavadini, and E.G. Daily were beyond hurt, but held no ill will. Tom Kenny, Roger L. Jackson and Jennifer Hale reprise their respective roles (though Hale has been replaced as Princess Morbucks).
Despite positive anticipations from audiences, the reboot ended up unsuccessful to live up to expectations. It received very mixed to negative reviews from critics, and was lambasted by audiences. Although it gained relatively high ratings at the start of its runtime, its ratings drastically dropped. Since September of 2016, most of its newer episodes failed to reach over a million viewers.
Films[]
The Powerpuff Girls Movie[]
The Powerpuff Girls Movie was released in the United States on July 3, 2002, by Warner Bros. Pictures. The movie, a prequel to the series, tells the story of how the Powerpuff Girls were created, and how Mojo Jojo became a supervillain. The movie received a rating of 63% at Rotten Tomatoes, and received some criticism for the violence involved. In all, the movie grossed $16 million worldwide with an $11 million budget.
Twas the Fight Before Christmas[]
On Christmas Eve, The Powerpuff Girls warn Princess Morbucks that she will not get anything but coal in her stocking if she does not improve her attitude. Princess becomes worried about the prospect, and soon travels to the North Pole and discovers that she is the sum total of the "naughty list", so she decides to switch the "nice list" with the "naughty list" so she can have her wish to be a Powerpuff Girl granted. The following very early morning, Bubbles discovers that their house and other houses have nothing but coal, and thinks Santa made a mistake. The girls get ready to fly to the North Pole, but are greeted by Princess Morbucks, who is now a Powerpuff Girl. A large chase and battle ensues as the girls rush to the North Pole to inform Santa while fighting off Princess. When they do arrive, Santa is not happy to see them, as they crash into his office after destroying his workshop and, on top of that, he is exhausted from delivering coal all night. The Powerpuff Girls and Princess both make their case to Santa on which story to believe, but Santa soon realizes who The Powerpuff Girls are and acknowledges their heroism. An infuriated Princess then throws a tantrum, which exposes her evil nature and her list-switching scheme in front of Santa. This results in her being put on the "Permanent Naughty Plaque", and having her powers stripped by Santa. He then tries to formulate a plan to rectify his mistake, and asks the girls to deliver the presents, as his sleigh is destroyed. The girls happily accept the task, and deliver the presents to children all over the world at lighting speed, returning home just in time for sunrise and to open up their own presents with Professor Utonium.
Pilots[]
Whoopass Stew[]
A short was made by Craig McCracken while he was in college at CalArts. It was submitted to the Cartoon Network, and the inappropriate name “Whoopass Stew” was changed to “The Powerpuff Girls”. Four of them were created, though only one was finished. The other three pilots are presented on the Complete Series DVD set accompanied by the original storyboards and their original audio.
A Sticky Situation![]
Begins with the same opening sequence as the series, except that the Professor accidentally adds a can of whoopass rather than Chemical X. The Whoopass Girls fight the Amoeba Boys, get stuck to them, and have to fly them into the sun to beat them. This short was only shown in animation conventions and was never aired publicly on television due to the suggestive word, "Whoopass", and other inappropriate themes.
Whoopass A Go-Go![]
Whoopass a Go-Go was one of the four pilots series creator Craig McCracken created for CalArts. It was never completed, and was only shown as an animatic.
What a Cartoon![]
Meat Fuzzy Lumpkins[]
When Fuzzy Lumpkins loses a jam contest, he creates a meat ray gun that turns anything into raw, butchered meat, leaving it up to the Powerpuff Girls to save the day before everyone and everything in Townsville is turned into a butcher shop.
Crime 101[]
When the Amoeba Boys fail at being real bad guys, The Powerpuff Girls teach them how to be bad by robbing a bank. They get a lesson in criminal justice when they get arrested.
Cast[]
Voice actors for the shows and films[]
- Jennifer Fried (1992)/Cathy Cavadini (1995-2014)/Amanda Leighton (2016-present) - Blossom is one of the main characters in the animated television series "The Powerpuff Girls". She has long, light red-orange hair, pink eyes, and usually wears a pink dress with a black belt and a red bow on the top of her head and a heart-shaped hairclip when seen from behind. She is known for being the smartest one and the leader of the Powerpuff Girls.
She often tries to play peacemaker between her two sisters if they yell at each other (she and Buttercup often yell typically).
Her special superpower is "Ice Breath", similar to Ace's cryokinesis power in "Power Lunch", as revealed in the episode "Ice Sore", though in the same episode she has been shown to breathe fire. In "Ice Sore", surprised and shocked by her new power, Bubbles and Buttercup quickly become very jealous of their sister. During the episode "Power-Noia", it's revealed that she dislikes failing tests.
- Jennifer Fried (1992)/Kath Soucie (1995-1996)/Tara Strong (1998-2014)/Kristen Li (2016-present) - Bubbles is one of the main characters in the animated television series "The Powerpuff Girls". She is portrayed as having blonde hair in two pigtails, blue eyes, and dresses in a blue dress with a black belt. She is the strongest of the group (despite being the same age as her sisters) and is defined by being the cutest. She does, however, have a tendency to be the toughest, leading to her never being regarded, by friends and foes alike, as the group's strongest link, a fact that has led to her never being manipulated by opponents.
She can be very independent when pushed, and out of all the Powerpuff Girls, she is the most feared by Mojo Jojo after having single-handedly taken him down in a fit of rage in the episode Bubblevicious.
Her special superpower is the Sonic Scream (although later the other Powerpuff Girls seem to be able to use their own version too).
She is afraid of the dark, which is often the focus and revealed on some episodes (such as "Boogie Frights" and "Power-Noia").
- Jennifer Fried (1992)/Elizabeth Daily (1995-2014)/Natalie Palamides (2016-present) - Buttercup is one of the main characters in The Powerpuff Girls. Unlike Blossom, she is bossy, vain and demanding, and Bubbles, who is more emotional and outgoing, Buttercup has (mostly) a morbid, cynical and reckless attitude (likely due to the fact that, out of the three girls, her name was chosen purely out of convenience on Professor Utonium's part). She hates everything, especially unicorns. She'll punch or otherwise injure (physically, emotionally, mentally or any combination of the three) anyone who gets in her way. She is Blossom, and Bubbles's best friend regardless of the awful way she treats her. She is known for rarely smiling; the one occasion on which this happens, it causes reality to fall apart. She orders Blossom and Bubbles to do chores for her, among a slew of other grunt work. She is naturally hostile and cynical and is shown in one episode to have physical difficulty saying the word "please".
She has short black hair in a flip, light green, eyes, and dresses in a light green dress with a black belt. She is the fighter of the Powerpuff Girls. Sometimes, her personality gets the better of her, which sometimes results in her getting in trouble with adults. She possesses a tough, hostile, cynical, stupid, bad, and violent streak not shared by her sisters. She also showed a needing side in "Moral Decay", where she knocked out villains' teeth for money. She has shown these sides in all episodes. For example, in "Cover Up", she had a soft green blanket that she was obsessed with. Whenever she hugged it, she got the confidence to be a better fighter and she is quite protective of her sisters. In "Nuthin Special", her special ability is to curl her tongue, which nobody can do. In "Speed Demon", it is also revealed that she can fly slightly faster than her sisters, which led to her winning the race, though she claims this only because her hair doesn't keep her back.
In the episode "The Rowdyruff Boys", she has tremendous disdain for resorting to kissing the boys in order to eliminate them, though willingly kisses a boy ridden with which she feared to be "cooties" in a later episode, though she may have gotten over it. At times, she can be reckless, but is fairly witty at times and is frequently sarcastic.
Buttercup is afraid of spiders and cockroaches, as revealed and seen in "Power-Noia".
- Tom Kane - Professor Utonium is the scientist responsible for creating the Powerpuff Girls. The Professor is very "square", and he is unlucky in love (which perhaps explains why he created the girls through science; however there was once a possible hint of him being married but somehow that ended in tragedy, possibly death as proved by a second pillow in the Professor's bed). He is protective of the girls, sometimes to a fault. In the episode "Knock It Off" it is revealed that his first name is Antonio.
He is a very affectionate and supportive father whose pep talks often bring the girls around when they are discouraged. While he is sometimes portrayed as rather skittish, he can be firm with the girls when he needs to (particularly when they get into physical fights or arguments).
He is a keen golfer and some of his most successful inventions are those that he makes by accident - such as the Powerpuff Girls themselves, or the containment device seen in "Bubble Boy" (he says of it: "Once again, I have no idea what I did!"). He bears a slight resemblance to Samurai Jack.
- Tom Kane - HIM is a mysterious, super powerful, red-skinned, effeminate, apparently androgynous and immortal devil-like creature. His physical appearance is an amalgamation of sorts with crab-like claws, lobster-like skin, pointed ears, a hooked nose, and a long, curled beard, wearing makeup, a woman's red jacket and skirt with pink tulle at the collar and hemline, and black, thigh-high, spike-heeled boots. It's implied that he may be Satan, but, according to the narrator in Him's first appearance, he is so evil that his real name "can never be said." He is the ultimate embodiment of pure evil, and talks in a chilling, girl-like voice that echoes at all times as if in a cave and becomes demonic when angry.
Unlike most villains, who prefer to antagonize Townsville by themselves, Him disguises himself or creates psychological events or catastrophes which he uses as an attempt to cause the Powerpuff Girls to break mentally before he destroys them. He has shown numerous satanic forms, most of which are revealed in hell or apocalyptic situations or realms. His powers are so great that at one stage, he is able to resurrect and improve The Rowdyruff Boys, and also move and halt the sun itself. The Powerpuff Girls themselves are often unsure of how to fight him.
In the episode "Speed Demon", with the Girls missing, Him gained control of the world and left a surge of death and horror in his wake. This resulted in his own powers becoming so great that even the Powerpuff Girls could not harm him. In this setting, he was also able to change into a much larger and more sinister-looking version of himself. The scene in the episode "Tough Love" that depicts Him hovering above Townsville sowing the seeds of hatred in the minds of the citizens is probably a parody or a tribute to the scene in F. W. Murnau's 1926 adaptation of Faust which depicts Mephistopheles hovering above the sleeping town sowing the seeds of plague.
Despite being the "ultimate evil" he has a normal job as the owner of a diner where Professor Utonium once ate his breakfast. Craig McCracken has stated that the character "Him" was inspired by the Chief Blue Meanie in the 1968 Yellow Submarine film. This can be seen in Him's character as both have a falsetto voice, get enraged easily and both are eccentric.
- Paul Mercier (1995)/Tom Kane (1998-2009) - Talking Dog is a small white dog with black ears and nose and a black spot on his back, wearing a red collar with a yellow dog tag. He mostly appears as a background character, but always has something to say. In the episode "Shut the Pup Up", he once stayed with the Girls for a while when he became the sole witness to a mystery crime. When he stays with the girls he is shown to be blunt, abrasive and insulting, though his demeanor remains straightforward and earnest. In "Mo' Linguish", he was the only one in the city whose English was good enough to reverse Mojo Jojo's language lessons. If one watches "The Powerpuff Girls Movie" before any other episode (since it serves as a prequel to the series), the first thing he says is, "Thank you," which he says after the girls save the town from Mojo Jojo for the first time, and after Buttercup (reluctantly) takes the time to save him three times in a row.
- Kath Soucie (1995)/Jennifer Hale (1998-present) - Ms. Keane is the kindergarten teacher of Pokey Oaks. She wears an orange shirt, red vest, brown pants, and has short black hair and light blue eyes. She is patient, understanding and very protective of her students, making her a well-liked, motherly figure. Her name is a tribute to Margaret Keane, an artist whose paintings feature children with huge eyes, much like Powerpuff Girls. She may also represent a nod to cartoonist Bill Keane, creator of The Family Circus, as she closely resembles that cartoon's character Mommy (Thel), with dark hair and flip hairdo. She also seems to have a fair command of general relativity, able to produce complex equations at an incredible pace, as seen in "Speed Demon".
Her name is also revealed by Bubbles asking her that Billy throws paper at her in "Tough Love". In several episodes, her innate motherly instincts come into play when she is teaching her surrogate children in her class, particularly when weaker kids (like Elmer Sglue in "Paste Makes Waste") get picked on and bullied by the other children.
She even fell in love with the Professor and went on a date with him in "Keen on Keane", however the romance failed after she refused to believe the Professor's story about a cat who controlled his actions (although less believable things have happened in Townsville) (the events of the episode "Cat Man Do") the narrator told that cat the Professor mentioned to be quiet.
- Jennifer Hale - Sedusa is a young, beautiful mistress of disguise and seductress who uses her feminine wiles to influence unsuspecting men to do her bidding. When her identity is revealed, she typically doffs down to her leotard battle suit and fights with her whip-like hair, which she can control. In the episode Equal Fights, Femme Fatale referred to her as "That chick in the underwear". In her introduction episode ("Mommy Fearest"), she poses as an ordinary woman named "Ima Goodlady". She tries to manipulate the Professor against the girls, but is unsuccessful. She becomes powerless when her hair becomes wet (or cut off). In one episode, she had the ability to whip off globs of sticky hair gel adhering people to walls. In the episode "Aspirations", Sedusa seduces the Gangreen Gang into stealing several Egyptian artifacts. She is still bald from when Miss Bellum cuts off her hair. When she gets the artifacts, she becomes giant and rather than hair, deadly asps grow. Sedusa betrays the Gangreen Gang, which leads to Ace telling Blossom to take the crown from Sedusa. Sedusa loses her hair once more, as well as her gigantic stature. She begs the boys to help her, but they refuse and Sedusa is sent back to jail. Her eyes change color. When she is "happy" or "nice" her eye color is green, but when she is angry or evil, they are red. This is seen in the episode "Mommy Fearest". She is based on Medusa from Greek mythology.
- Jennifer Hale (1999-2009)/Haley Mancini (2016-present) - Princess Morbucks is a spoiled, insecure, mean, rich little girl, whose partially unseen and mostly mute "Daddy" allows her to finance various evil plots to destroy the Powerpuff Girls. Her supervillain outfit consists of a yellow, Powerpuff-style dress, black gloves and boots, and a tiara. In the episode "Stuck Up, Up and Away", she is told by Buttercup that "You can't just buy superpowers!" and she retorts, "Oh yeah, tell that to Batman!" Her hatred of the girls stems from her rebuffed attempt to become one of them. She is also the only female villain in the series who is not an adolescent or young adult woman; she is approximately the same age as The Powerpuff Girls. In the episode "Twas the Fight Before Christmas", she is revealed to be the only villain (and one of only five people in the whole world) on the Permanent Naughty Plaque (as such never get a gift from Santa). In the episode "Boy Toys", the Rowdyruff Boys crashed into her car when they were fighting The Powerpuff Girls. She decided this is a perfect opportunity to join a group that has all of the powers of The Powerpuff Girls but still be evil. She manages to stop The Powerpuff Girls from defeating the Rowdyruff Boys after they have collapsed in a road and she asks them if she can join, but the Rowdyruff Boys burst out laughing and reject her. Princess Morbucks and The Powerpuff Girls joined forces in order to defeat the Rowdyruff Boys.
- Jennifer Martin (1998-2014)/Amanda Leighton (2016) - Miss Sara Bellum is The Mayor's very competent assistant, a statuesque redhead. She handles things the Mayor cannot, which is practically everything. Her face is never revealed onscreen until "The Powerpuff Girls Rule!!!". Whenever she appears, an object will either block her face or the camera will "cut off" everything above her neck. Whenever she is the center of attention (as when Blossom took over her body or when she fought Sedusa) her hair often covers her face. Other onscreen characters often claim that she is very beautiful, with the abrasive Talking Dog claiming she isn't.
In the bleak future of "Speed Demon", she expresses an obsessive attachment to the Mayor, suggesting that she may be in love with him. She is named after the cerebellum, probably in reference to her job as the "brains" of the Mayor's operation. She attended high school with Sedusa and Femme Fatale prior to the creation of the Powerpuff Girls.
- Jim Cummings (1995)/Tom Kenny (1998-present) - The Mayor of Townsville who is referred throughout only as "Mayor" (even campaigning with the slogan "vote for Mayor for Mayor"), although he is referred to as "Barney" by his wife in the episode "Boogie Frights". He is short and old with a fringe of white hair around a bald scalp, a thick mustache, and a scatterbrained-sounding voice.
He wears a monocle and a small top hat that floats just above his head. He is very fond of pickles as revealed in Tough Love, and his little hat. The Mayor is married (to a woman who looks very much like him), although apparently their marriage is a rather lame one and he rarely ever mentions her.
In the episode "Powerpuff Bluff", he is willing to trade his wife in exchange for a "priceless, very rare, one-of-a-kind" porcelain poodle. In the episode, "Pee Pee G's", he shows Bubbles that he wears a diaper underneath his pants. He also had a crush on Miss Bellum when she was replaced by Sedusa.
- Craig McCracken (1992)/Ernie Anderson (1995-1997)/Tom Kenny (1998–present) - Narrator is the series' enthusiastic but unseen narrator, known for opening nearly every episode with "The City of Townsville!" and ending them with "So once again, the day is saved, thanks to... The Powerpuff Girls!" (except in a few episodes where someone gets credit for righting the wrongs of the episode). He will often comment on the proceedings of the episode and frequently breaks the fourth wall. He is never seen at any point in the series, though he is a person and not just a disembodied voice. He also seems to be the only connection between the audience and the girls, as he can "talk" to both and even be involved in the story itself, such as Mojo transforming him into a dog and being affected by Him's hate gas.
His name is also apparently "Narrator". In the episode "Simian Says", he is kidnapped by Mojo, who promptly takes his place as the episode begins, granting Mojo the power to narrate the story as he sees the girls have no choice but to go along with the narrative until they find Mojo near some controls, suggesting that the Narrator has absolute power over the story, though he never seems to exercise it himself.
- Tom Kenny - Mitchel "Mitch" Mitchelson is the bully at Pokey Oaks Kindergarten. Mitch has brown hair and wears a black T-shirt with the words “MITCH ROCKS” on the front. Usually talks in a gruff voice; he torments the kids in the class in a few episodes, though he is not a major threat to anyone (although he did commit animal cruelty in "Gettin' Twiggy With It".) His laugh and voice is almost the same as that of Popeye. He is Buttercup's closest friend, according to Buttercup in her interview on "The Powerpuff Girls Movie DVD".
- Tom Kenny (Snake and Lil' Arturo)/Jeff Bennett (Ace, Grubber and Big Billy)/Carlos Alazraqui (Lil' Arturo in two episodes) - The Gangreen Gang are a gang of teenaged hoodlums that are green-skinned and unhealthy looking (as if suffering from gangrene). They originally appeared alongside The Amoeba Boys in McCracken's original short, Whoopass Stew, as the villains the girls are shown fighting in the introduction (rather than every major recurring villain on the show). They also cameoed in The Powerpuff Girls Movie as the first villains the girls ever encountered, though the girls were too reluctant to use their powers to do anything about it at the time and were saved by Mojo Jojo. They were, however, beaten up by the girls and sent to prison at the end of the movie. They do not have powers, nor are they truly a threat in many ways; however, they do have special characteristics and they did once obtain powers in the episode "Power Lunch". The Gangreen Gang made crank calls to the girls using the Powerpuff hotline, only for the villains who ended up being the victims of the pranks (Mojo Jojo, Fuzzy Lumpkins and Him) to beat the Gang senseless.
- Roger L. Jackson - Mojo Jojo is the main antagonist of the series. A monkey with great intelligence, notable for his bad, pseudo-Japanese accent and his overly convoluted manner of speaking. As revealed in the episode "Mr. Mojo's Rising" and again in "The Powerpuff Girls Movie", Mojo Jojo was Professor Utonium's lab assistant, Jojo, before Professor Utonium created the Powerpuff Girls, and it was he who caused the Professor to accidentally add Chemical X to the mixture (thus making him responsible for their creation in the first place). He is the Powerpuff Girls' most frequent villain. He has a huge, exposed brain under his hat, and has no super strength; however, as seen in the episode "Forced Kin" (a chimpanzee is, in fact, about four times as strong as an adult male human, so perhaps it represents an enhancement of his latent natural talent). While he is portrayed as serious and arrogant, he is often used to make humorously long speeches or sarcastic statements. He has even sometimes shown a slightly friendly attitude toward the girls, most notably when he babysits them in one episode. He is also slightly scared of them, particularly Bubbles. His most frequent utterance is, "Mo-Jo-Jojo!" Saying Mojo slowly and quicker on Jojo. When Bubbles became Mojo-esque in one episode, she too said it like this.
- Roger L. Jackson (Butch)/Rob Paulsen (Brick and Boomer) - The Rowdyruff Boys are the male counterparts of the Powerpuff Girls created by Mojo Jojo using a mixture of "snips and snails and a puppy dog tail" in a prison toilet in the episode called "The Rowdyruff Boys". His replacement for Chemical X was, in fact, prison cell toilet water, as Mojo Jojo believed that would have the same potency as Chemical X. An important difference between the trios is that the Powerpuff Girls got their names from Professor Utonium and the name of their team from the narrator, while the Rowdyruff Boys named themselves and their team. The Rowdyruff Boys are violent bullies, have exactly the same powers as the Powerpuff Girls and in their first appearance nearly destroy them in a violent clash that reduced a great deal of Townsville to rubble (this is the first and one of the few times the Girls were defeated outright). The Girls were so ashamed of their defeat they planned to leave Townsville. Ms. Bellum suggested using a different tactic and told the girls that instead of fighting the boys, they should be nice to them. The boys were ultimately destroyed when the girls kissed them.
The Rowdyruff Boys were later resurrected by Him in the episode "The Boys Are Back in Town" and much to the Girls' shock, they were given immunity to the girls' cooties by getting applied with Him's substance called Anti-Cooties which made the Boys grow bigger and more powerful and their eyes grew laser red. The Boys eventually get their revenge on the Girls by grossing them out in various ways, such as cracking their knuckles, picking scabs and spitting. Once again, the Girls are almost destroyed by the Boys, but after Buttercup made Butch bite his tongue he almost cried with pain and shrinks under his brothers' laughter. Blossom realized that when their masculinity was threatened they would shrink. The Girls do various things such as using makeup and babying them to shrink the Boys smaller than the buckles of their shoes.
After their resurrection, the Boys sported spiky hairstyles. Their signature colors are darker than the Girls', though they share similar hairstyles. They wear long-sleeved shirts with a black stripe in each, black pants and black trainers with white stripes.
They are last seen as villains in "Custody Battle", where at the end after being fed up with Mojo Jojo (their original creator prior to their first deaths) and Him (the one responsible for reviving them) fighting over who's the more evil father, the Boys announce that they do not care who is more evil. Their final appearance at the end of the episode is when they fly off to destroy the Powerpuff Girls, the only evil thing they ever cared about (which subsequently brings Mojo Jojo and Him to happy tears at having done well as parents).
As revealed in "The City of Clipsville", the Boys make an "appearance" in the memories of the Girls, who remember when they sped up time, becoming teenagers and meeting the teenage Rowdyruff Boys.
- Jim Cummings - Fuzzy Lumpkins is a large, husky, furry pink bear-like hillbilly monster with a wide jaw, a green bulbous nose, two antennae on his head and blue overalls. He talks with a Southern accent and will shoot anything he finds trespassing on his property. He lives in the woods next to the City of Townsville and is also prone to destructive fits of rage, sometimes gaining enough physical strength to almost overpower the girls. He owns a banjo which he calls "Joe and he also invented a meat ray and tried to use it turn everyone in Townsville into meat".
- Lou Romano (1992)/Chuck McCann (1996-2018) - The Amoeba Boys are a gang of amoebae who were the villains featured in McCracken's original short, Whoopass Stew in A Sticky Situation. They reappeared in the World Premiere Toons short Crime 101. With their gangster-ish affectations, these aspiring criminals would love nothing more than to be regarded as serious villains worthy of fighting, and even getting beaten up and sent to jail by the Powerpuff Girls. Unfortunately, their brains are too primitive to devise a crime above the level of littering or jaywalking (perhaps as a consequence of A Sticky Situation, where they are seen having successfully robbed a bank and using their semi-solid bodies to stick to the girls and create a dilemma for them, solved when the girls flew them to the Sun, melting the Amoebas and their more-developed brains). Indeed, they considered stealing an orange to be their greatest crime ever (in the episode "Divide and Conquer"). The Amoeba Boys were seen in jail in the Powerpuffs Birthday Bash, so they may have done a crime worthy of jail time before, however, what they did to cause them to be in jail was not revealed. The Amoeba boys sent a gift, voodoo dolls to the girls, not understanding that they were supposed to keep the dolls, not the needles. They are Townsville's least malicious villains, even having a friendship-of-sorts with The girls. They are generally harmless, but their actions have on several occasions endangered both the girls and the town purely by accident. The greatest threat they have posed to Townsville and the girls was in Geshundfight, when they each caught a cold that, when merged with their DNA, created a severe virus that quickly spread through the city, making even the healthiest person fall ill instantaneously. It wasn't until the girls, who were also infected, acquired their DNA (after a brief and very easy fight, despite the fact they were all very sick) so Professor Utonium could create an antidote he soon dispensed to the town, curing them just as quickly. The Amoeba boys finally received the super villain status they had long craved when they used their ability as Amoebas to multiply, creating a veritable army that the girls finally stuck back together and sending the Boys to jail, much to their delight.
- Bossman, leader and general spokesman of the Amoeba Boys. He wears a gray fedora.
- Junior, the smallest one. He wears a black cap and usually repeats whatever Bossman says. In the episode "Crime 101", he is named "Tiny". Speaks in a squeaky high voice.
- Slim, the tallest one. He wears a brown fedora and is even much more incompetent and slow than the other amoebas. In the episode "Crime 101", he is called "Skinny Slim".
Other media[]
Merchandise[]
Books/Novels[]
From 2000 to 2006, DC printed a series of seventy comics based on the television show. Golden Books also published a series of Powerpuff Girls-themed activity books and storybooks, including one written and illustrated by Craig McCracken, titled Big, Terrible Trouble?. From 2013 to 2017, IDW Publishing published a range of comics based on the series. In 2014, IDW published a variant cover which showed the Powerpuff Girls with breasts and dressed in latex. The cover was designed by an artist working for Cartoon Network who was "thinking of it more along the lines of 'female empowerment' than the kind of thing you guys are talking about". Cartoon Network said in a statement: "We recognise some fans' reaction to the cover and, as such, will no longer be releasing it at comic book shops."
In April 2016, it was announced that a line of Powerpuff Girls reboot comic books would be released in July of that year, being published by IDW Publishing (who also published comic books for the original series).
Games[]
Several video games were made for this show all being action in genre. The Powerpuff Girls: Bad Mojo Jojo, released on November 14, 2000, follows Blossom as she tries to beat Mojo Jojo. The game was called "simple and boring" by GameSpot and was a failure critically. The Powerpuff Girls: Paint the Townsville Green, another game released in November 2000, follows Buttercup as she fights crime. The Powerpuff Girls: Battle HIM follows Bubbles in her fight against HIM and was released in February 2001. The Powerpuff Girls: Chemical X-traction was released in October 2001, where the girls battle enemies in a variety of settings in order to reclaim Chemical X and track down Mojo Jojo, who fed the material to all the villains in Townsville. IGN gave the game a positive review while giving the PSone version a 2.0/10 bad review. The Powerpuff Girls: Relish Rampage was released in November 2002. All three girls are playable in a 3D world, and the game received mixed reviews. The Powerpuff Girls: Mojo Jojo A-Go-Go released in 2001 centers around the name of the Powerpuff Girls' mission to stop Mojo Jojo and his minions. The game received mixed reviews. The Powerpuff Girls: HIM and Seek was released in 2002 where the girls battle their variety of enemies through Townsville while on a scavenger hunt. The game received mostly positive reviews. PC games were also made for the series. These include: The Powerpuff Girls: Mojo Jojo's Clone Zone, The Powerpuff Girls: Princess Snorebucks, The Powerpuff Girls: Mojo Jojo's Pet Project and The Powerpuff Girls: Gamesville.
Cartoon Network has released 5 mobile games based on the series titled, "Flipped Out", "Glitch Fixers", "Mojo Madness", "Ready, Set, Monsters" and "Monkey Mania". The latter two are free but the former is $2.99. All games are available on both the Apple App Store and Google Play.
A pair of Powerpuff Girls-themed packs for the toys-to-life video game Lego Dimensions were released on September 12, 2017. These include a Team Pack, containing playable Blossom and Bubbles figures and constructable Octi and PPG Smartphone items; and a Fun Pack, containing a playable Buttercup figure and a constructable Mega Blast Bot. The packs add a new Powerpuff Girls-themed open-world area and battle arenas to the game. Also, there was a crossover exclusive Teen Titans Go! episode for Lego Dimensions that included the "Powerpuff Girls" fighting the Gremlins in Jump City.
Toy line[]
From 1999 to 2002, Trendmasters made Powerpuff Girls dolls and action figures. The franchise made nearly $1 billion in retail sales by 2002 according to Cartoon Network. From August 21 to October 1, 2000, Subway promoted the series with four toys in their kids' meals. A set of six kids' meal toys was available as part of an April 2001 Dairy Queen promotion, which also included a sweepstakes offering the Powerpuff Girls VHS Boogie Frights. Jack in the Box released six Powerpuff Girls toys in July 2002 as a tie-in for The Powerpuff Girls Movie. On February 10, 2003, Burger King began a four-week promotion featuring The Powerpuff Girls and Dragon Ball Z toys as well as special codes to redeem online for Cartoon Network's Cartoon Orbit. In the United Kingdom the characters of Buttercup and Mojo Jojo were given away in Kellogg's cereal boxes as part of the Cartoon Network Wobble Heads in 2003.
Before the series premiered, a toy line for the series was announced to be released in 2016 by Spin Master, with more toys released in 2017. The toys include the new 2-in-1 playsets and more.
A McDonald's Happy Meal promotion for the series ran from June 14 to July 5, 2016 in the United States, including mini action figures, rings, and collectibles.
On August 24, 2018, 2 Lego sets were released in the United States and United Kingdom.
Common Elements[]
Plot Elements[]
The show revolves around the adventures of three kindergarten-aged girls with an array of various superpowers: Blossom (pink), Bubbles (blue), and Buttercup (green). The plot of an episode is usually some humorous variation of standard superhero and tokusatsu shows, with the girls using their powers to defend their town from villains and giant monsters. In addition, the girls have to deal with the normal issues that young children face, such as sibling rivalries, loose teeth, personal hygiene, going to school, bed wetting, or dependence on a security blanket. Episodes often contain hidden references to older pop culture (especially noticeable in the episode "Meet the Beat Alls", which is a homage to the Beatles). The cartoon always tries to keep different ideas within each episode with some small tributes and parodies thrown in.
The show is set mainly in the city of Townsville, USA. Townsville is depicted as a major American city, with a cityscape consisting of several major skyscrapers. In his review of The Powerpuff Girls Movie, movie critic Bob Longino of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution said, "the intricate drawings emanate 1950s futuristic pizzazz like a David Hockney scenescape," and that the show is "one of the few American creations that is both gleeful pop culture and exquisite high art."
Development[]
During Craig McCracken's first year in the character animation program of CalArts, he wanted to produce an animated short film based on a wrestler-type character he made called "El Fuego". In June 1991, he created a drawing of three girls with large eyes, inspired visually by the paintings of Margaret Keane, on a small sheet of orange construction paper as a birthday card design for his brother. Looking for some "diversity and balance" in the drawing, he had created a blonde, a redhead, and a brunette. He then realized on how cute the girls looked cute and heroic and replaced the aforementioned wrestler with the girls he drew. The following year, he made them the protagonists of his animated short Whoopass Stew! The Whoopass Girls in: A Sticky Situation. Initially, McCracken wanted to animate all four Whoopass Girls shorts, but only one was produced. McCracken's shorts were selected to be shown at Spike and Mike's Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation]] in 1994.
While he was working on 2 Stupid Dogs in 1992, McCracken's Whoopass Girls short was picked up for a series by Cartoon Network. The name Whoopass was dropped for inclusion as part of the What a Cartoon! animated shorts showcase. McCracken explained that Cartoon Network executives believed no one would make children shows with the partial word "ass" in it. The title changed to The Powerpuff Girls, the name "Whoopass" was changed to "Powerpuff" by Craig McCracken, and the "can of whoopass" was renamed "Chemical X". McCracken's new short, entitled "The Powerpuff Girls in: Meat Fuzzy Lumpkins", aired as part the network's World Premiere Toon-In on February 20, 1995. The short was not as popular as Dexter's Laboratory, a project McCracken and former classmate Genndy Tartakovsky (who also directed many episodes of Powerpuff Girls) worked on together; being the most popular of the shorts, Dexter's Laboratory was the first to be greenlit by the network. Furthermore, McCracken's cartoon didn't do well with a test audience composed by 11-year-old boys; "They were saying, 'This is stupid, little girls can’t be heroes'", he recalled in 1999. Cartoon Network executive Mike Lazzo (who later served as executive producer for Williams Street in the fifth season of Samurai Jack) allowed McCracken to produce a new Powerpuff Girls short titled "Crime 101", which aired on What a Cartoon! in early 1996.
The Powerpuff Girls series debuted on November 18, 1998, and was the highest-rated premiere in Cartoon Network's history at the time. During its run, the series consistently scored the highest rating for an original series each week for the network across a wide range of demographics—from young children to adults. In October 2000, Cartoon Network credited the series for its Friday night prime time ratings win among cable networks. By the end of 2000, merchandising based on the series encompassed a whole variety of products, including T-shirts, toys, video games, lunchboxes, and dishware. Concerning the show's success, Craig McCracken has stated, "I thought it would get on Cartoon Network and college kids would watch it and there would be a few random T-shirts out there in the rave scene or in record shops. But I had no idea that it would take off to this extent." Following the series' fourth season, the closing of Hanna-Barbera Productions and the death of its executive William Hanna in 2001, McCracken left it to focus on his new animated series, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, leaving Chris Savino to take his place while production of The Powerpuff Girls was moved to Cartoon Network Studios. The show's last original run episode was on March 25, 2005; in all, six seasons were made. Cartoon Network had offered to give McCracken and Savino a seventh season of the series, but they believed six was enough, and that the series had run its course. Much of the people who worked on the new seasons also worked on seasons 3 and 4 of Dexter's Laboratory, but included other new crew members, such as Thurop Van Orman, who then created Camp Lazlo in 2005, The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack in 2008 and The Angry Birds Movie 2 in 2019.
All of the original episodes were hand-drawn and produced at the Korean studio Rough Draft Studios, except the What a Cartoon!shorts, with the first one being animated at Animal House in Japan and the second being animated at Fil Cartoons in the Philippines. James L. Venable, Thomas Chase, & Stephen Rucker composed the opening theme of the series, and Scottish band Bis performed the ending theme song, as played during the credits. The opening theme uses a sped-up drum break sample of "Funky Drummer" performed by Clyde Stubblefield.
History[]
Craig McCracken, a student of California Institute of the Arts, created The Whoopass Girls in 1992 in his short film The Whoopass Girls in A Sticky Situation. Spike and Mike's Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation selected the short in 1993; McCracken submitted it to Hanna-Barbera's innovative What A Cartoon! shorts program (eventually to be produced for Cartoon Network as "The Powerpuff Girls in: Meat Fuzzy Lumkins" as part of World Premiere Toons) while working on Dexter's Laboratory. As the word "whoopass" was deemed verbally inappropriate for younger audiences, considering the last three letters, the word was replaced by "powerpuff."
The Powerpuff Girls TV debut in 1998 was the highest rated premiere in Cartoon Network's history at the time. For the first few seasons, the series consistently scored the highest rating each week for an original program for the network across a wide range of demographics—from young children to adults. In October 2000, Cartoon Network credited the Powerpuff Girls for its Friday night prime time ratings win among cable networks. By 2001, merchandising based on The Powerpuff Girls encompassed everything from T-shirts, toys and video games to lunchboxes and dishware. There was also a CD entitled Heroes and Villains, featuring original songs about the Powerpuff Girls characters by a number of artists, including the New Wave group Devo. Concerning the Powerpuff Girls success, Craig McCracken has stated "I thought it would get on Cartoon Network and college kids would watch it and there would be a few random T-shirts out there in the rave scene or in record shops. But I had no idea that it would take off to this extent."
In April 2005, plans for an anime version, Demashita! Powerpuff Girls Z were announced and the series premiered in Japan the following year. The series deviates highly from its American predecessor in terms of style, storyline, and characterization. Cartoon Network in the USA currently has no plans to air this show.
Music[]
James L. Venable composed the opening theme of the series and Scottish band Bis performed the ending theme song, as played during the credits. Veteran announcer Ernie Anderson (more well known as "The Voice of ABC" in the 1970s and 80's) was the narrator of the two pilot episodes and would have likely continued to narrate. However, Anderson passed away in February of 1997, the year before the show became a series, which left the studio to hire voice actor and comedian Tom Kenny to be the series' narrator. Tom Kenny narrated the introduction, and also acted as narrator through the series era.
The opening narration reads as follows: "Sugar, spice, and everything nice. These were the ingredients chosen to create the perfect little girl. But Professor Utonium accidentally added an extra ingredient to the concoction: Chemical X! Thus the Powerpuff Girls were born! Using their ultra super powers, Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup have dedicated their lives to fighting crime and the forces of evil!"
As the narration reveals, Professor Utonium created the girls out of sugar, spice, and everything nice (a reference to the nursery rhyme "What Are Little Boys Made Of?"), plus the accidental addition of Chemical X. The opening of the series pays homage to the animated beginning of 1960s live-action television series, Batman, as both shows feature a pan across a gallery of villains, with the animated heroes running toward the viewer while striking the villains, who are tossed away in slow motion.
v - e - d | ||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|